Portola Garden Club — Portola Neighborhood Association

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PORTOLA GREEN SPACES

Through education and community service, we seek to inspire neighborhood participation in the creation and stewardship of green spaces throughout the Portola, and uphold Portola’s legacy as San Francisco’s Garden District. Committed to pollinator health, the PGC is experimenting with native plant colonization including nectar sources, to make food available for our pollinators. Drought tolerant non-native plants ensure our gardens don’t become a burden on our water sources.

ALEMANY ISLAND AT ALEMANY BOULEVARD AND SAN BRUNO AVENUE

In 2009, Davery Yim’s landscape plan for a native garden at the base of San Bruno Avenue was chosen from student proposals in City College of San Francisco Thomas Y. Wang’s horticulture landscaping class. With funding from a 2011 San Francisco Community Challenge Grant awarded to the PNA for the Alemany Island Beautification Project, Portola gardeners Rae Van Heirseele and Kleyton Jones designed and oversaw the irrigation layout, and coordinated plant purchases and garden installation.

SILLIMAN GARDEN AT SILLIMAN STREET AND SAN BRUNO AVENUE

Silliman Street Garden is a mix of native and drought tolerant plantings. The linear rows fanning out from the Garden District mural represent the flower cultivation farms that once dotted the neighborhood.

BURROWS POCKET PARK - BURROWS STREET AND SAN BRUNO AVENUE

Neighbor Ruth Wallace spearheaded this PNA project to develop and beautify the Burrows street dead end. Once a barren concrete dumping ground, today’s garden overflows with Mediterranean inspired plantings, brick paver sidewalks, decorative seating and a mural by San Francisco muralist, Jason Jagel.

THE GREEN BETWEEN

In 2015, plans to extend Burrows Pocket Park were developed through a series of Portola community workshops guided by the Portola Urban Greening Committee (now disbanded). Plans to green the Portola include parklet installations and planted pathways.

Funded by San Francisco Community Challenge Grants, PNA volunteers have cleared the space of trash and noxious weeds, purchased plants, installed structures that welcome visitors, and will continue through 2022. Native California coastal scrub vegetation has been planted to support local pollinators. Volunteers attend first Saturday of each month workdays to keep this site weeded, cleaned and mulched. The writing up of a master plan is underway, with a January 2022 completion date.

Please join us on our greening work days: first Saturday of every month, 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. To volunteer, RSVP here. On the day of, please sign in, bring water, snack & gardening gloves. Dress in layers and wear sturdy shoes.

THE GREEN BETWEEN WORKSPACE or THE WORKSPACE

The Portola Garden Club Workspace, began in 2019 with funding from the San Francisco Office of Employment and Workforce Development, lies immediately to the north of the Burrows Pocket Park. The Workspace houses plants to restock greenspaces, gardening tools, raised beds with native wildflowers and succulents, Adopt-A-Highway materials and ephemera that invokes gardening from days of old.

Scheduled garden days are conducted with classes from the Portola Family Connections that focus on native plants, pollinators, plant anatomy and the importance of community greenspaces.

Please join us on greening work days: first Saturday of every month, 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. To volunteer, RSVP here. On the day of, please sign in, bring water, snack & gardening gloves. Dress in layers and wear sturdy shoes.

VOLUNTEER

Getting involved is easy. Send us an inquiry or attend one of our workdays and sign up. Join us and neighbors at a workday on the first Saturday of each month. We meet at Burrows Workspace at 10:00 a.m. and groom greenspaces until 1:00 p.m.

To volunteer, RSVP here. On the day of, please sign in, bring water, snack & gardening gloves. Dress in layers and wear sturdy shoes.

DONATE

You can donate specifically to the Portola Garden Club & PNA. Be sure to designate “PGC” in the message/comments box when you donate through the PNA’s fiscal sponsor.

DONATE